Medical News
Listen and Learn – They Will Eat the Double Cheeseburger and NOT the Statin
Non-compliance with medical advice or medications is not a good prescription for future outcomes. Underwriters need to know which side of the compliance fence the applicant is on.
Many Patients On Cholesterol Meds Stop Treatment : NPR
Go to Hank George’s website for a good read on non-compliance.
Risk-Taking Behavior: Noncompliance with Medical Advice | Hank George INC
Listen and Learn – Statins for Everybody
Here are a few links that provide some more insight into the recent results from the Jupiter study.
Study: Statin Helps Even If Cholesterol Is Normal : NPR
In Lowering Cholesterol, How Low Do You Go? : NPR
You can read the NEJM abstract here:
NEJM — Rosuvastatin to Prevent Vascular Events in Men and Women with Elevated C-Reactive Protein
Mine’s 72. What’s Yours?
More Scary Stuff
Most people who know me know I’m fairly diligent about exercise and diet. They also know I enjoy my glass of anti-platelet aggregation liquid in the evening. But most who know me, don’t know I used to weigh 350 pounds. I lost my weight back in the 70’s (that’s 19 not 18 70’s). So it pains me to read an article like this. The sample size may be small, but the results do not surprise me nor are they encouraging regarding the current health of our kids and the future health status of these guys when they grow up.
Check out this scary stuff. The future of underwriting looks bright.
Child Obesity Seen as Warning of Heart Disease – NYTimes.com
NOT Racial Profiling
Check out the non-white negative outcomes percentage.
Newswise Medical News | Age, Race Are Among Factors That Influence Carotid-Surgery Success
Listen and Learn – Recent Diabetes Research
Add +50 Debits up to Decline
The connection between OSA and SCD is getting stronger according to a recent study by the Mayo Clinic. This information has profound implications for how life underwriters approach this combination of impairments. When I started in the profession last century, not much thought (or rating) was given to OSA. Times have changed and we now know more about the risk.
Will we use this new data or once again succumb to market forces?
Lower PSA Levels From Statins
My inner protective sense of cynicism has worked well in the underwriting of mortality risk. Let’s hope the results of this small study are spurious. Otherwise, we’ll all have just one more thing to worry about on that case we accepted where the PSA levels miraculously normalized.
Coronary Calcium Scan Primer
www.mayoclinic.com has posted an overview of coronary calcium scans on their website. You can access the article through the link above.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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